My cockerel needs bromide!

[fluffy9947]

Cockerel born last year is rogering everything in sight, 5 times in half an hour. Hens are looking a bit beaten up. I mean, I watched a cock pheasant yesterday wooing his girl and he was SO gentle about it. Made a little dance and then jumped up with her on the fence, and then bowed and displayed to her. No roughness. Cockerel is completely different. Take the lady by the neck with your beak and then jump her! Jesus! Weinstein tactics!
Fluffy 9947

 

[Painted Calls]

Give that boy a cold shower!

 

[aart]

Get him out of there.
What's the bromide reference?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Not sure how old that cockerel is, females either for that matter. Females have a part to play in this too. But that sounds like typical cockerel behavior soon after the hormones hit. Mature hens and roosters tend to be a lot like your pheasant but immature chickens act, well, immature.

Not sure if this will help you or not but I call this typical mating behavior between mature consenting adults.

The rooster dances for a specific hen. He lowers one wing and sort of circles her. This signals his intent.

The hen squats. This gets her body onto the ground so the rooster’s weight goes into the ground through her entire body and not just her legs. That way she can support a much heavier rooster without hurting her joints.

The rooster hops on and grabs the back of her head. The head grab helps him get in the right position to hit the target and helps him to keep his balance, but its major purpose is to tell the hen to raise her tail out of the way to expose the target. A mating will not be successful if she does not raise her tail and expose the target. The head grab is necessary.

The rooster touches vents and hops off. This may be over in the blink of an eye or it may take a few seconds. But when this is over the rooster’s part is done.

The hen then stands up, fluffs up, and shakes. This fluffy shake gets the sperm into a special container inside the hen near where the egg starts its internal journey through her internal egg making factory.

The hormones have hit him and are telling him to dominate the flock. At that age mating is not really about fertilizing eggs, the pullets are often not even laying. The mating act is about dominance, the one on bottom is accepting the dominance of the one on top, either willingly or by force. With immature chickens it is often by force. Sounds like that is what you are seeing. Sometimes a mature hen will put a cockerel in his place, but often not. A lot depends on the personality of the individual hen. Don't expect pullets to do that, they tend to just try to run away. Having a lot of room so they can run away can sometimes help with this but it will not stop him.

Why do you want that male? What are your goals with him? The only reason you need a rooster is if you want fertile eggs. Everything else is personal preference. Nothing wrong with that, personal preference can be a strong motivator but it is a choice, not a need. I generally recommend that you keep only as many males as you can and still meet your goals. That is not because you are guaranteed issues with more, but that the more you have the more likely you are to have problems. I don't know what the right answer is for you but it sounds like either zero or one. That's for you to decide.

I typically raise a bunch of cockerels to butcher age with my flock every year. What you describe sounds pretty typical. I use the same philosophy for this that I'd use for integrating hens into an all-hen flock. If no one is getting injured (often described as no blood) I let them work it out. That's just chickens being chickens. About once every three or four years it gets rowdy enough that I separate out many or all cockerels. I've had enough experience I can use my judgment on that.

Part of this may be your expectations. This can be extremely hard to watch. As one member on here said watching cockerels and pullets going through puberty is not for the faint of heart. But don't forget they can be injured as they go through this phase. And some never grow up.

So what can you do? One is to get rid of him. You can eat him, give him away, or try to sell him. Many cockerels that would mature into a good rooster are eaten at this stage.

You can pen him separately, either forever or until he has a chance to mature. I've had a cockerel at 5 months behave himself, though that is rare. I've had one take until 11 months. Most of mine calm down at seven months. If you do decide to try him later I'd suggest you don't try until he is at least seven months and see how it goes. You may have to isolate him again.

If you try this the behavior what I'd expect to see when you put them together is that he mates a couple of hens to show his dominance and they are his. Usually no force involved. But in his absence one of the females will become dominant. She may readily accept his dominance or she may resist. I've seen it get fairly rough between a mature cockerel/almost-a-rooster and the dominant hen for a couple of days. That can be hard to watch too.

Or you could let them go as long as long as no one is being injured. That's the route I choose but it's not for everyone. And even I separate them occasionally.

Good luck!

 

[fluffy9947]

Thanks. i found this extremely useful. I think he has to go. As you say, the older hens tell him where to put himself, but the younger ones just flatten, and he can cause damage because he is not very good at it!